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Crossing Causes Traffic Headache County Wants to Widen Old Dixie Highway

Posted on: Saturday, 11 February 2006, 18:00 CST

By KEVIN TURNER

CALLAHAN -- On any weekday afternoon at Callahan Middle School, a passing train can turn a busy section of road into a logjam of school buses full of kids, and cars and trucks driven by parents waiting to pick up their children.

Callahan Middle School Principal Ellen Ryan said the two-lane Old Dixie Highway can't handle the volume of traffic it carries. And growing train traffic on nearby railroad tracks is making matters worse, she said.

"We ring the bell, and [students] are all loaded in their buses," Ryan said. "And then a train will come, and the parents are in their cars in a line wrapped around the parking lot."

Nassau County Commissioner Marianne Marshall, whose district includes Callahan, has long championed widening Old Dixie at the railroad crossing and at its nearby intersection with U.S. 1.

"I have brought this up for years and years," Marshall said. "We need to widen that road and add a third turn lane. We have more trains running today than ever before. It backs traffic up into the turn lane of U.S. 1. It's horrible. It's an accident waiting to happen."

Callahan Middle School officials also have long expressed concern, Ryan said.

"It's a narrow road. I've been here nine years, and as long as I've been here, there's been talk that they're going to widen it. A couple of years ago, it was supposed to happen, but then it didn't. There's been a lot of growth. Now the infrastructure isn't there for all of it. A lot more people live out on Dixie Highway now," Ryan said.

Things should soon improve on Old Dixie Highway and other roads as Nassau County officials move ahead with improvements they've discussed for years, Nassau County Administrator Mike Mahaney said Friday.

Mahaney is proposing $3 million in improvements to Nassau County roads, including Old Dixie Highway, County Road 121, County Road 108 west of Hilliard, Ford Road, Scott Road and a new traffic signal at 14th and Beech streets in Fernandina Beach, he said.

He has submitted the proposal to Nassau County Clerk of Courts John Crawford, the county's chief financial officer, for review. Mahaney met with Deputy Clerk of Courts Jerry Greeson and Deputy Clerk of Courts Comptroller Chris Lacambra on Friday to discuss it.

Mahaney said he hopes Crawford will approve spending transportation impact fees to help pay for the improvements. But even if those funds can't be used, the county has other ways to pay for them, including a portion of property taxes earmarked for transportation, 1-cent tax revenues, and reserve funds, he said.

Mahaney said the Old Dixie improvements need to be planned and funded quickly so the county doesn't lose state funding, Mahaney said. The Florida Department of Transportation has agreed to pay $350,000 for railroad crossing improvements, but if the county doesn't commit to its share of improvements by June, the funding could dry up, Mahaney said.

"That's what we're trying to prevent," he said.

A 5-cent gasoline tax that took effect Jan. 1 can't be used to widen Old Dixie Highway because it's earmarked for resurfacing existing county roads, not widening them, Mahaney said.

If the county commits to the project by June, work will begin by December and should take a year to complete, Mahaney estimated.

In the meantime, Callahan Middle School students, parents and staff continue to contend with the narrow Old Dixie Highway and the frequent passing trains.

"We definitely need that road widened for safety -- for the students and for the parents," Ryan said. kevin.turner@jacksonville.com, (904) 261-7606 extension 105.

Source: Florida Times Union

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